Cold weather photography equipment hazards ?

[jzimm]

Hi I am a novice and there is a beautiful full moon out tonight but the temperature is 9* F tonight will this affect my lens/camera with condensation or frost im just wanting to be out short while 30 - 40 mins Thank you all very much Jeff

 

[D-B-J]

Shouldn't be a problem. I've shot in 15* weather for almost two hours and had no issues. Just make sure your batteries are good an charged.

Best,
Jake


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jzimm]

Thanks much ! :0)

 

[jsecordphoto]

Yup, spent a lot of time outdoors at night this winter and have had no problems. One night we were out running timelapses for around 4 hours in -10 weather, when we packed up our cameras there was a layer of frost on my camera body and on the body of the lens (not the glass) and I was a little nervous, but it was fine. I just made sure not to let it warm up too quickly on the ride home

 

[Overread17 5]

Things to consider

1) Battery life will reduce as the temperature drops. A trick is to take spare batteries (or if you use two in a grip to just use one at a time) and keep them in a pocket close to your body so that they are kept warm (chest pockets on shirts work well for this). Then when the battery in the camera starts to get low you swap it over; this gives that battery time to warm up and restore some of its performance whilst you shoot with the other battery.

2) Condensation will happen when you bring the camera in from the cold. A tip is to keep the camera in the camera bag when you bring it in along with some silica gel packs so that it can come up to room temperature.

(note remember silica gel packs work great, but need to be regularly dried out otherwise they won't perform well

 

[Gavjenks]

I don't think the silica is really necessary in most cases, but if you can afford it, sure. The bag part, yes. Do that.
Condensation will only form on the outside of the bag, not your camera until it warms up.

Other than that, your photos can actually be noticeably sharper when it's bitterly cold outside, because thermal noise is one of the most prominent sources of error / noise in your photographs. So for the most part, you're better off in cold weather than in warm, all the way until it gets so cold that the lubricant in your mirror seizes up or whatever, which I'm guessing is only at stupidly low temps like -30 or something. I've been out this winter in -10 (actual temp) and had no sluggishness mechanically at all.

 

[Overread17 5]

Honestly noise generated by the heat of the sensor tends to be one of those extreme things. You notice it for sure when you run the sensor for a long period of time (such as for some astro photography) but otherwise the noise generate by the general temperatures we live in is minor. A bad exposure is going to be a much bigger contribution to noise

 

[runnah]

Besides batteries and condensation from temp swing there really is no issue. I regularly shoot in -10-20 degree temps and have no issues. The photographer on the other hand requires a warm coffee afterwards.

 

[TCampbell]

Cooling can have a fairly dramatic reduction on the amount of noise. Sometimes even modest cooling can be a huge.

The biggest problem of using cameras outdoors in cold temps is the effect on apparent battery life. Batteries like to pretend they are dead when they are cold. When I do astrophotography imaging, I use an AC adapter to run the camera (it's not actually running on battery power.)

But the real danger in so far as the camera being damaged happens when you bring the camera back indoors. Condensation wants to form on every cold surface (just like it does on a nice cold glass of ice water -- or that beer glass that you might store in the freezer.) Make sure all caps are on the camera body before bringing it back inside. I would put the camera in it's bag and zip it up. If you want to be extra cautious... put the camera in a ziplock bag (while still outside) and seal the bag before coming inside. Allow the camera to acclimate for an hour or so before taking it out of the bag.

 

[CaptainNapalm]

You'll be fine, I've shot with my camera in -20 deg C weather (-35 with windchill factor) for over 3 hours at a time continuously with no issues. You will likely experience some condensation on your equipment once you move it to a warmer environment. What you can do when/if this happens is remove the lens, remove the battery, remove SD cards, open all compartments and let all the condensation evaporate, this shouldn't take longer than 15-20 minutes and minimizes any potential moisture damage.

 

[DiskoJoe]

Hi I am a novice and there is a beautiful full moon out tonight but the temperature is 9* F tonight will this affect my lens/camera with condensation or frost im just wanting to be out short while 30 - 40 mins Thank you all very much Jeff

Go sit your gear outside in a bag in a dry place for about 30 mins before you head out. This will give the gear time to adjust to the conditions prior to shooting.


DO NOT SHOOT condensation forms on the lens.

 

[runnah]

Pro tip: placing gear in a mirocwave set on defrost will remove any condensation.



Ok don't do that

 

[TCampbell]

Hi I am a novice and there is a beautiful full moon out tonight but the temperature is 9* F tonight will this affect my lens/camera with condensation or frost im just wanting to be out short while 30 - 40 mins Thank you all very much Jeff

Go sit your gear outside in a bag in a dry place for about 30 mins before you head out. This will give the gear time to adjust to the conditions prior to shooting.


DO NOT SHOOT condensation forms on the lens.

You will not likely need to cool the camera down before use. We do that with telescopes, but telescopes have a lot of thermal mass and we get "heat currents" (distortions) as they cool... but moreover, a telescope typically has quite a long focal length with an extremely narrow angle of view. That means a tiny distortion that you'd never see with a normal camera lens actually is noticeable with a telescope because the angle of view is very small. Condensation can only form if the temperature of the camera is lower than the temperature of the dew point. That won't happen when taking a camera from warm to cold... it will only happen when the camera goes from cold to warm.

If for some reason you do put a camera bag out in the cold, remove the battery. A "cold" battery will pretend it's dead. Keep a spare battery in an inside pocket close to your body to keep it warm if you plan to be outside a while... that way it won't pretend it's a dead battery when need it.

 

[AlanKlein82 21]

Don't forget to dress yourself for cold weather. Extra layers, waterproof boots, a hat,. I also use gloves that your can roll back the fingertips back for adjusting the camera then coverup right afterwards. Freehands Men's Stretch Thinsulate Gloves (Large, Black) 11121ML

 

[minicoop1985]

What do you shoot with? If you're using a 70D or something with a touch screen, I would... avoid that. Something like a 7D is great for shooting in the cold, since it was designed to be used with gloves. I think the D7100 and D5x00 would work for that too without too much fumbling.